1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a building structure and, more particularly, to a multi-story building structure with at least one pair of levels including a living level and a sleeping level.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several types of multi-story building structures have been proposed. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,698,973 to Zeckendorf et al, 3,302,340 to Chertkof, 3,656,266 to Tylius, 3,750,354 to Boros, and 3,884,001 to Tylius all disclose multi-level building structures with units occupying more than one level in split-level fashion, i.e. there exist half-level elevational differences between rooms of one and the same apartment unit. U.S. Pat. No. 2,390,179 to the inventor of the instant application discloses a building construction with apartments occupying two or more levels, with the sleeping area of an apartment unit disposed directly above or below the respective living area of the same apartment unit. U.S. Pat. No. 2,390,179 discloses a U-shaped floor plan with a public corridor disposed along the inside walls of the building, and thereby taking up an entire flight of possible outside exposure walls, which could otherwise be utilized as exposure walls for apartment units.
It is therefore seen that it is a disadvantage of all the prior art that available space is not properly utilized for habitable areas but is instead assigned to public areas such as corridors and the like. Another problem with multi-story building structures lies in the fact that only few of the apartment units have more than one outside exposure wall, i.e. only few apartments offer cross-ventilation or even through-ventilation. Buildings in accordance with the prior art are replete with short-comings and disadvantages which are overcome by the invention of the instant application, as shown in the following description.